Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Finally getting a chance to enter for Lulupu's challenges. So here is my first ever entry :).

My 'Glorious' themed mini album is 4x3 inches in size (pretty miniature, I know! I love creating miniatures!). It hosts 5 pages, with flaps or fussy cut pockets or tags or with certain surprise features (that you can get to see in the video at the end of this post).

(Pictures best viewed in Full Screen.)

The cover is heavily decorated in a very ornate and dreamy way. Loads of flowers and paraphernalia, accentuated by pearl trims, shiny/textured Prima brad to balance the design and colours.

I've used papers that are heavy on the design aspect and contrasted that with subtle embellishments. For the spine, I glossy accented the word 'Glorious' and to give it a raised effect, stuck it on multiple cardstocks and design papers. To highlight the spine's exclusivity, I used glitter glue on all 4 sides.

For the back, I've used different strips of pattern papers and tried to elevate the back in a subtle way, instead of giving it a plain Jane look.

For the closure, I've used a metal chain, secured it with Prima brad, and added some kewtness with an Eiffel Tower charm.

Because the album is of a really small size, and because the cover is so heavily embellished for its size, I have used intricately designed papers (that provide style on their own) and contrasted them with a tad simplicity w.r.t. embellishing them. I've added a magnetised foldable tab that gives you 4 sides to stick pictures. All the pages have contrasting pearls/rhinestones at the corners. Some have lace or flowers or other embellishments. There's a lot of stamping on some of the pages and flaps.

Here you can see fussy cut flowers that have been made into a pocket for keeping tags and pictures.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

I love experimenting with my craft supplies and projects; and this time, when I received the free Bielo cardstock from the Craft Shop/Priya Sivaraj, I couldn't wait to try my hands on something different.

The cardstock is buttery smooth in texture and really sturdy and thick. It's absolutely white. I was really excited the way my distress inks (and painting with them) reacted with the cardstock; so absolutely smooth and receptive.

Since I love using distress inks, my card features those in quite a few different ways. But my absolute favourite is the watercolour effect derived from distress inks (and Bielo cardstock is so perfect for that).

So for the card, I first used a sparkly brown 'ribbon' for the edges and embellished it with resin corners. Then I started my background and used distress inks (all purchased from The Craft Shop) with water and made brush strokes diagonally for the base. Then I sprayed a couple of sprays from Lindy's stamp gang. Used Graphic 45 stamps for the corners (purchased from The Craft Shop).

(Best viewed in full screen)

I used my mini distress ink (peacock feathers) and blotched it all over my card and added some gesso randomly and very thin. I then took some gorgeous Prima papers and cut them to align them as in the card. I distressed the edges boldly and used one of the Graphic 45 Happy Birthday stamps. Made random lines all over to make the card more cohesive and painted the edges with the same distress inks and water.